Morson Fishing Reports, LOTW

[Shorelunch]

Went up Friday - Sunday. Was an interesting weather and fishing weekend. Went fishing nearby Friday night and caught some eater walleyes in about 30 minutes. Jigs and minnows.

Saturday morning the wind howled. Did some chores, but around late morning, the wind died and the lake was pretty calm. Tried points, rip-rap, weeds at varied depths north of Morson - nothing but a few small eyes. Went out at night to the same Friday spot and caught just enough perch and walleye for a fish fry. Nothing special. Jigs and minnows or Gulp.

Sunday morning - another calm day - tried humps and points east of Morson. Not much again. Overall, not much to write home about. Just couldn't really find them. Tried all kinds of depths and structure and didn't really mark many fish.

Maybe it's transition time or we stunk up the joint this weekend . . . back up for the 4th.

[Scoot]

We musky fished most of Sat out of Morson. My sister caught her first musky- a little 24" and I got a 43" later. My brother lost a very big fish at about 11:00. When the wind died down soon after, it was all over- nothing happening after that. We ended up walleye and smallie fishing a bit, but did nothing for either one of them. It was a beautiful day on the water and I wish I'd be able to get back up there before the end of July...

[Wild Thing]

Hey guys thanks for cranking up the posts again. Shorelunch, I agree on the transition thing. I was thinking the mayfly larvae had the roaming the mud and full... but it seems B-dude and his dad sure find them, as usual. Of course, the use DYNAMITE!

Heading up Wednesday and will try to post Sunday night when we get home.

Was sure expecting them to be on the reefs by now with the early spring we had, but maybe all the rain and wind has goofed them up again.

Man the water was like chocolate milk last week and I imagine it's worse now with even more rain. The fish are going to have to run into a lure to see it.

Tight lines, all.

(B-dude, whose birthday is this weekend, is it Kyla?)

[Shorelunch]

The water was much clearer to the east. Some spots to the north were already pea soup - and even more so in wind protected areas. My "guess" now is that they're on the humps and points leading to the reefs (take that for what it's worth!).

[Sumander]

It has been way too busy for me this spring/summer. Headed up to Morson on Thursday morning for the first time this year.We will fish through the weekend. My partner got home Sunday after a 10 day stint at the trailer. In his opinion the fish were moving to the reefs. His luck was as spotty as the weather. Looks like a favorable wind forecast. Let's hope it holds. I will report on Monday.

[benelli_dude2002]

i forgot to mention that some of the walleyes we cleaned had crayfish in them. We caught most of the fish on rocky shorelines. Be safe!

[Wild Thing]

WOW! They're ON the reefs big time!!!

Just home from about the three best days of walleye fishing of my life. Maybe had a single day better but not three in a row like that.

Thursday was great, Friday was better and Saturday I had 2 hours of once-in-a-lifetime walleye action. Late start after breakfast at Buena Vista, then from 10 to noon I nailed a 30 1/4, 28 1/2 and two 22's! Plus a dozen or so in the 18-19 inch category and many keepers. Went through a container of 30 crawlers!!! (And caught more than one fish on some crawlers.)

The 30'' weighed 9 pounds, 12 ounces on my Berkley digital and then back it went. My second biggest ever.

Nailed them on one of the closest reefs to my cabin in about 15 feet of water all on Cabelas double-hook spinners on bouncers and crawlers. Pretty funny, another boat (old Minnesota Lund of course, crowd fishermen) horned in on my reef after I got there and then anchored to block my drift. jerk-baits. But they pushed me a little deeper and then I couldn't keep the fish off my line. Those guys caught next to nothing (jigs and minnows) and watched me land and release 30-some fish! FUN! They asked where I got the crawlers. I said Hermantown Minnesota!!!

ON Memorial Day weekend I got two 27's in one day, but this takes the cake. A 30" and a 28" just 20 minutes apart!

On Thursday and Friday caught so many eaters that I just started checking out new reefs that I'd never fished before and caught at least one on every reef.

Only bad thing about the trip were the mosquitoes on shore and my daughter's best friend puking in the truck on the way home. Twice. But who cares.

70-degree water. Already an algae bloom. Mayfly hatch is over and the skeletons are everywhere.

Perfect weather all 3 days, no rain until late Saturday night. Lots of haze and clouds but mostly calm and warm. My favorite conditions for reef walleyes.

Home for 11 days then back up for our long 10-day summer trip. Can't wait.

Love them reefs!!!

P.S. If you fish near Morson and there is someone else on a reef, try a different reef. There are plenty to go around. This isn't Lake Mille Lacs!!!

[Sumander]

Wild Thing, your report was spot on. I had 3 of my hunting buddies with me. Fished Thursday afternoon through Saturday. It was spectacular weather and fishing. Fished close to BVR on reefs Thursday afternoon. We ended up keeping our limit of 15-16" fish, which in my opinion are the best eaters. between two boats caught 100 fish for the afternoon.

Friday we ventured further to the west. Same story as Thursday. The bite on friday afternoon on the reefs was unreal. That day officially spoiled 3 guys from wanting to fish any where else. Caught everything on jigs and minnows. Most of the fish were on top of the reefs. We did not catch anything deeper that 17 FOW. Once again kept a limit of 15-16" fish.

Saturday we spent way out West in the Firebag area. Found fish in some unusual places. We caght two 24" and two 26" fish in an area with current, not on the reefs. Then we tried a shoreline with some deeper water between two submerged points. There was a school of 19-22" fish in there that we couldn't scare out of there. For about an hour the two boats took turns going through there and pounding fish. We finally quit to go have shore lunch.

Best thing about Saturday was we saw fewer than 5 boats all day! It was like fishing on our own private lake!

Spectacular weather, spectacular fishing.

[Shorelunch]

Congrats on the weekend guys. I've yet to crack that 28" barrier on LOTW - awesome. I love the reef fishing, too, especially trolling spinners.

This is going to be a long four days waiting for Friday!

[Tman2]

Heading up tomorrow morning...hoping the bite holds!

WT- as for people coming into spots, I had two instances in the same afternoon! Fishing a spot with another boat in Miles Bay and a guy drives up within a 100 yards then slow trolls into our area! I saw him coming and held my boat in his path to get the point across.. didn't work. Had another guy (older) cruise up into a spot on Garden Island, which I will give a little more leeway too, but he starts to troll and comes within 25 feet of me.... twice! I had to stop fishing, and moving since I couldn't believe he was that close. Then he says, 'nice day'. Had a 3rd instance where an indian local came up within 100 feet then moved all the way in as if he was a fourth to our third (at least he gave me some walleye bite info). I'll cut him slightly more slack, but it's unbelievable how stupid some are. Maybe throw a buoy in a dead zone to attract 'em?

[Wild Thing]

Hey T-Man, not sure if we're overreacting or what. But in most cases, on any given reef up there, another dozen reefs are within eyesight. But these guys are so used to fishing in crowds they don't think twice about it.

But that's why I drive four hours, to get my own reef (and to catch more and bigger fish!)

I think a lot of them just don't know how to find good water and they fish the few spots they know over and over. If they don't have company, they don't think they are on a good spot!

(On Friday my first two reef choices were taken, but my third choice produced a bazillion walleyes, so it clearly didn't matter!)

The guy who came in on me Saturday asks "have you been up to Buoy 12 lately?'' I said, "not in four or five years. Too many people for my taste."

Anyhow, good luck Shore Lunch. You should slay them, if the weather holds. I keep thinking of those three days last week and I know they are going to go down in my own little history book.

Hope it lasts a couple more weeks!

Take care all!

[Casey Sunsdahl]

You rock WT... not too long til duck season!!!! QUACK QUACK BOOM...

same some 'eyes for the Take 'Em Club

[Sumander]

WT, I despise fishing in a crowd. That's why I rarely fish close to the BVR/Morson area. In fact I haven't been to Miles Bay in a couple of years. I am willing to spend a little more in gas money to fish alone. We haven't had a problem with people coming in on "our" reef when we are way out west. Just a hunch, but the people that run that far out are probably more familiar with the Lake and the unwritten rules of the Lake.

[Shorelunch]

We had a very nice 4th of July weekend. We were up from Friday afternoon thru Monday afternoon. For the most part, the weather was good - the winds howled Saturday night and had about two inches of rain - on top of the heavy rains up there Thursday - the water was running off pretty good and the lake is up, up, up. Sunday and Monday were perfect weather days for the family and fishing.

We had excellent fishing. The crew I fish with likes jigging, so we jigged reefs and points and caught fish at every stop. We just fished around the Sunset Channel area and Rabbit areas. Caught lots and lots of 12-15 inchers, 16-18's and a few bigger fish, with a 25 and 22 being the largest. The larger fish were tanks.

We used jigs and minnows, crawlers and Gulp. It didn't really matter what we used or color of jig or what was on the hook, they were biting good. Depths we caught fish were at 17-19 and also at 9-12 feet, although we marked fish deeper, we couldn't get them to go. Would have liked to see what trolling spinners w/crawlers would have done.

Very nice weekend - back up soon.

[Wild Thing]

The big fish bonanza just keeps going!!

Just got back from 10 wonderful days on LOTW. Only fished 5 of the days, got winded out 3 days and stormed out another and opted not to fish this morning. The wind was the only bummer of the trip. I hate wind.

No 30" this time, but I caught another 29'', two 28's, wife got a 26 and we had multiple 25's. Fished 3-4 hours each day between tubing, swimming and shore dinners... I've never had a summer with so many big fish. My boat already has seen a dozen walleyes 26'' and up! And we're just past halfway in July! Tons of 14-20 inch fish as well. Caught a couple bonus pike nudging 40 inches. Word is muskies are hitting in weed beds off sand beaches but we didn't have time to try.

All our walleyes came on crawlers on hammered gold spinners. Sometimes as deep as 19 feet at the edge of the rock, sometimes as shallow as 12 feet, depending on the day. But every reef we tried produced at least some fish. Unbelievable.

The blueberry crop is the best I've seen in my lifetime. My wife picked every single day and brought home buckets of berries the size of dimes and nickels!!!

Lake is way up, probably heading into the upper half of normal now. Mosquitoes are terrible. Water is warm, 72-75 degrees. Algae bloom is awful. Lots of boats but still plenty of reefs without anyone else.

Back up in 10 days!

(Anybody out there fishing? Hello?)

[Shorelunch]

We had a very nice weekend. Got up Friday afternoon - the wind was roaring from the west. It could have been our timing, but saw some huge rollers in the gap up close and personal - some of the biggest I've seen go through there.

Went out Friday night and got a few very nice eaters at a nearby island. Headed west Saturday morning to some reefs west of bouy 12. Did really well on the three spots we stopped. We trolled spinners, too from 15 - 20 feet. Caught a 25 and 23 incher and plenty of nice eaters and a lot of 12-14 inchers.

Went on the north side of Rabbit and also along the Sunset channel Saturday afternoon and also did really well. My 9 yr old caught nice smallies trolling spinners - both jumped nice for him too. Also caught some very nice eater walleyes and a couple 24 inchers.

Went back to the north side of Rabbit this morning and caught some more nice walleyes and perch to take home, along with another nice smallie and northern. It was perfect "chamber of commerce" weather today. I also heard they were hitting them good up in Miles Bay, but didn't feel the need to go up there when we were doing really well close by. I heard the same report on muskie and northerns in the sandy bays. Tough to leave. Back up soon.

[Wild Thing]

Sounds like we had overlapping luck, Shorelunch, and we were very close to you on Saturday! Maybe southwest of you a mile or two. You're right about it being tough to leave that kind of fishing!

Hey what's the deal with this HSOforum not letting us start new posts? I tried to update with a new Morson post yesterday and created it but it was later deleted and the entry thrown into this old one.

Whassup with that?

[Eastwind]

W.T. and Shorelunch,

Thanks for the continuing reports. I head up for the first time sine May today. Hopefully get out for an hour tonight. I hope the reef, all the un crowded ones, are still putting out. I'll post from there or when I get back this weekend. Hopefully, I'll have more of the same luck you guy's have been having. Any luck with the Smallies? Thanks.

E.W.

[Shorelunch]

W.T. and Shorelunch,

Any luck with the Smallies? Thanks.

E.W.

We caught smallies along islands with classic structure - rip rap with weeds in 12-15 feet. We caught most of ours while trolling spinners for walleyes and a couple throwing Rattling Rap cranks. These spots had drop offs leading to deeper water. I've heard good things going on in the Gooseneck and Village areas, along with Brulle (I forget the spelling - the island south of Rabbit) shoreline.